After years and years of complaining about Microsoft doing this to your system or changing policies or putting a new "feature" it's still humorous to see the outrage.
1) Microsoft is a company. A company in this case which is a profit making entity. They will bundle "features" tying you to their system and will do "noncompetitive" things to retain and enhance market share. When you install your O/S there's T's and C's that you agree to or were agreed to on your behalf. 2) Yeah, forcing downloads of multiple GB multiple times is unscrupulous behavior but refer to #1 above. Nagging you all the time is a firing squad offense in my book. 3) There's alternatives, use them instead of MSFT products. If you don't like the MSFT bullshit, don't use it or keep your system and disable all automatic updates and get Autopatcher. Autopatcher can keep you up to date without all the phantom re-installs of disabled patches. 4) If you're an end-user who doesn't know what's going on, carry on get the upgrade or pay Geeksquad to upgrade you. If you're so inclined just buy a new machine with it already installed and transfer your files. This commonly known as the "if you like your Microsoft, you can keep your Microsoft" strategy. 5) MSFT will only start changing its cultural/instrusionware policy if enough customers walk away or they get hit by a Class Action lawsuit. Again refer to #1 above.
Having grown up in Orange County CA, Disneyland is in Anaheim which is not in Los Angeles. Try getting from LAX to Anaheim sometime during rush hour and you'll understand.
Or if you go through the scanner and constantly get a pat down. That's what happens to me, always. These things are nothing more than security theater and are there to justify that the government is doing "something" to protect the flying public. If I'm going to get patted-down anyway, I opt-out routinely because it means I get the TSA to lug my bags through the checkpoint. As I'm flying today I'll give you an update but I have a 100% confidence that I'll get a pat-down after going through the Nudeo Scan 5000.
No, actually it's not. If you want features, you're going to have complexity; there's no way around it. If you want a Spartan car, great, good luck getting the automakers to make one for you. There are some really cheap econoboxes out there, so you can buy one of those, but even those are going to have some creature comforts because it's only a few freaks who really want a stripped-down vehicle, not enough to bother with because the cost of producing cars is so high. Every time automakers do try to make a super stripped-down model for all these complainers, they end up sitting on dealer lots, unable to be sold.
There's lots of basic cars out there that aren't overly complex. Sure, you have to have an ECU but after it's optional. You can have electrically heated this and that but it doesn't take a program to deal with it. It's been done for years.
Are you one of those people that still uses a flip phone or even a landline?
If it doesn't need to be there, why put it in?
Because people want nice things. Duh. Not everyone is some minimalist freak who doesn't like anything nice.
Tell me, where can I buy a "flip phone?" They sound amazing. Also define "nice." are you saying that "nice" requires over complexity? Shit if that's the case DeBeers, Rolex and Patek are pushing the wrong product.
Really? Change the bulb maybe but not the housing. Not if you're a BMW owner [bimmerfest.com] at least.
You're going to have to elaborate. I read through a bit and didn't see any problems. Here's one guy's post:
"I finally got around to replacing it with a new one and I didn't need to touch any programming whatsoever."
If you're able to swap a headlight housing without messing with any special programming tools, then what exactly is the problem???
Read the rest of the thread. Did you read about the ALU? You missed that part huh?
You obviously live in a world where nothing possibly goes wrong, you take your car to a dealership and it's all puppies, kittens and rainbows. Some of us like to have alternatives to getting raped. Some of us *gasp* buy tires/wheels on the Internet that are all ready to be installed. I know, it's amazing I can buy anything now and I don't even have to have a dealer involved. It's a gas.
I've blown out amps, speakers and head units.
How in hell did you manage to do that? What kind of crappy cars are you buying where these things fail on you? Or are you playing stuff at max volume constantly or something?
I've lost equipment over various reasons (busted CD eject), one system failure was a presumed lightening strike and speakers.. Well, let's say not all of us listen to NPR daily. Oh and I'd say that what I buy isn't exactly cheap either. No car is "cheap" anymore but if you lay out nearly six figures on any car it'll have something wrong with it over it's lifespan. I've had car on lease once that annoyed the hell out of me due to amplifier humm.. 7 repair visits before they finally replaced the AMP. I don't think Volvo knows how to deal with Led Zeppelin.
Can't you just clear the DTC with a typical OBDII scan tool? How did you modify the ECU to disregard it anyway?
You can clear a DTC however they'll usually pop back up. That's the nature of most DTCs. There's software out there you can buy and online support forums that'll teach you how to take care of these problems. A few years ago it was custom chips / EEPROM coders but now it's all software. I made the investment and never looked back.
Luddites you say? "less is more" is actually quite rational and is a sister to KISS Sure technology changes, cars get updated but nobody is advocating going back to points, manual chokes et al. If it doesn't need to be there, why put it in? Why does a car need "dozens of computers?" Maybe it's to be able to massage your ass? That's a human machine interface problem, not my field.
Oh bullshit. You can replace headlights on any car; that's completely stupid. They might not make it completely easy with HIDs, you might have to disassemble some plastic paneling or something, but it's not like you *have* to have dealer equipment to do it. HIDs all use standard D2S and D4S bulbs.
Really? Change the bulb maybe but not the housing. Not if you're a BMW owner at least.
And why the hell would you need "service" at a licensed dealer for your stereo?
In the name of anti-theft if you're keeping things OE. I've blown out amps, speakers and head units. In the case of three cars I've owned the only place I could get them fixed was at a dealer without replacing the entire system. Are there ways around it? Sure but you can't just plug in an OE radio unless it's programmed with the car. If you're going aftermarket you can chuck the OE unit in the garbage or EBay it which is precisely what the manufacturers don't want you doing. They'd rather you pay full price for a new one.
If you have regular problems with your stereo needing servicing, you're doing something wrong.
What if I want to upgrade and resell my old unit? The buyer of my OE equipment has to make provisions with a dealer or a tech who knows how to get around the anti-theft protection.
TPMS? Why would that need service, unless you're changing a tire (and personally I've never met any backyard mechanic who changed their own tires)? All the carmakers use standard TPMS sensors anyway, and all the tire shops will sell you new ones if you need them (like for a second set of wheels, for people who switch between winter and summer wheels/tires). And that's just for cars which actually use TPMS sensors; a lot of cars just reuse the ABS wheelspeed sensors to detect differences in tire pressure. To reset the system when you inflate the tires, you just press and hold the TPMS button.
Honestly, I'm really sick of all the new-car paranoia from luddite morons who want to go back to the days of carburetors and distributor points and manual chokes.
For this model, the reprogramming process uses a handheld device that records each sensor's output and then feeds those into the car's computer. The sequence usually takes about five minutes or so. But at this dealership, the technicians fiddled around for more than two hours and finally threw in the towel. They said the problem was that the aftermarket sensors were no good. Their official programming tool didn't recognize the signals the sensors were transmitting.
What was needed, they said, was original-equipment Toyota TPM sensors. They'd be happy to remove all four "faulty" sensors, install new ones, and program them to the car. All this for a mere $640.
They obviously see a problem with TPMS sensors and compatibility. I've had personal experience with this one during a 36,000 mile service the dealer wanted to charge me $800 for new TPMS sensors. The solution for me was to tell the dealer to stick it up their ass. Why were t
Actually I do. I have done work for the automotive electronics industry. That's why I advocate "less is more" because of lock-in and it's not just about infotainment it's about all the other things that the manufacturers want to lock you out of. Headlights, Tire Pressure Monitor Sensors (TPMS), Stereo equipment and anything else that they can think of that a) forces you to buy from them for as long as you own it and b) forces you to get it serviced at their licensed dealers only. It's that way with headlights now on many top end cars. This kills the legitimate market for aftermarket parts and forces your insurance costs skyward.
Shit if they could they'd DRM the windshields to force you to replace it using their OEM windshields when you get a rock chip.
Just buy a damn smartphone and a holder for it. Give us Bluetooth connectivity for music and hands free. Oh and fuck Onstar. That's all you need. That way we can replace the phone every two years which is a hell of a lot easier than spending an extra $5K for a built-in system that is not easily up-gradable and leaves us vulnerable.
who see the potential of the Bradbury-inspired code to help develop comprehensive indexes of censorship on the internet
So if I want to censor you and not have it tracked I'll just give you a 403 or a 500. Which is pretty much how it works now. This won't allow anybody to truly see how much censorship there is. What a waste of intellectual bandwidth.
With data caps like Comcast's carrying a real financial cost in terms of overage fees, how can we trust providers to accurately track customers' bandwidth usage?
You can actually. There are laws that protect you from billing errors/problems but there's also lawyers. Sue the companies in court, present your evidence and sue for damages. I've had to do this with Bank Of America, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile in the past. It works because eventually you get somebody up the food chain who actually understands that they're fucking you over and try to fix it. Unfortunately in some companies there is not intelligent life to be found so I've found that judges can usually get to the bottom of things quite quickly especially when legal briefs start flying. Sure it costs money but if it's a small claims type of thing you can usually win by default because I can't see Comcast paying $500/hr for a lawyer to deal with a $300 bill.
Sorry Bennett, mobile carriers can pretty much do what they want, how they want, when they want. You could switch carriers you know, go to Sprint or Verizon or AT&T or one of their VNOs. Grow a pair and stop being such a whiny bitch.
Yes, yes they did. Windows has always had a little splash screen that included weasel language allowing them to do this. If you don't like Windows Update, you can turn it off and not get Windows 10 pushed to you. The problem is now, how do you easily get security updates? That's what tools like Autopatcher are great and providing, especially if you're supporting a lot of machines without a Volume License (Corporate) Agreement.
It's legal because of the ToS you accepted when you installed the operating system and accepted automatic updates from Microsoft. Therefore you did it to yourself.
My suggestion is to dump automatic updates and go to something like Autopatcher which avoids accepting things blindly on your behalf.
considering the cost? A lot. Construction site theft and vandalism is a big problem in the US. It's a bigger problem when the Press circumvents property rights.
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You may as well watch Clippy dance on your screen, it's about as effective as calling MSFT tech support.
After years and years of complaining about Microsoft doing this to your system or changing policies or putting a new "feature" it's still humorous to see the outrage.
1) Microsoft is a company. A company in this case which is a profit making entity. They will bundle "features" tying you to their system and will do "noncompetitive" things to retain and enhance market share. When you install your O/S there's T's and C's that you agree to or were agreed to on your behalf.
2) Yeah, forcing downloads of multiple GB multiple times is unscrupulous behavior but refer to #1 above. Nagging you all the time is a firing squad offense in my book.
3) There's alternatives, use them instead of MSFT products. If you don't like the MSFT bullshit, don't use it or keep your system and disable all automatic updates and get Autopatcher. Autopatcher can keep you up to date without all the phantom re-installs of disabled patches.
4) If you're an end-user who doesn't know what's going on, carry on get the upgrade or pay Geeksquad to upgrade you. If you're so inclined just buy a new machine with it already installed and transfer your files. This commonly known as the "if you like your Microsoft, you can keep your Microsoft" strategy.
5) MSFT will only start changing its cultural/instrusionware policy if enough customers walk away or they get hit by a Class Action lawsuit. Again refer to #1 above.
Now there's only 20 billion naked chick pics left on the Internet. We need more Porn now!
Having grown up in Orange County CA, Disneyland is in Anaheim which is not in Los Angeles. Try getting from LAX to Anaheim sometime during rush hour and you'll understand.
Or if you go through the scanner and constantly get a pat down. That's what happens to me, always. These things are nothing more than security theater and are there to justify that the government is doing "something" to protect the flying public. If I'm going to get patted-down anyway, I opt-out routinely because it means I get the TSA to lug my bags through the checkpoint. As I'm flying today I'll give you an update but I have a 100% confidence that I'll get a pat-down after going through the Nudeo Scan 5000.
Hey my family is from Looky Lew WV ! It's a great place for a dead end career.
Yes but I don't think Martin Landau or Barbara Bain will be around for the sequel.
No, actually it's not. If you want features, you're going to have complexity; there's no way around it. If you want a Spartan car, great, good luck getting the automakers to make one for you. There are some really cheap econoboxes out there, so you can buy one of those, but even those are going to have some creature comforts because it's only a few freaks who really want a stripped-down vehicle, not enough to bother with because the cost of producing cars is so high. Every time automakers do try to make a super stripped-down model for all these complainers, they end up sitting on dealer lots, unable to be sold.
There's lots of basic cars out there that aren't overly complex. Sure, you have to have an ECU but after it's optional. You can have electrically heated this and that but it doesn't take a program to deal with it. It's been done for years.
Are you one of those people that still uses a flip phone or even a landline?
If it doesn't need to be there, why put it in?
Because people want nice things. Duh. Not everyone is some minimalist freak who doesn't like anything nice.
Tell me, where can I buy a "flip phone?" They sound amazing. Also define "nice." are you saying that "nice" requires over complexity? Shit if that's the case DeBeers, Rolex and Patek are pushing the wrong product.
Really? Change the bulb maybe but not the housing. Not if you're a BMW owner [bimmerfest.com] at least.
You're going to have to elaborate. I read through a bit and didn't see any problems. Here's one guy's post:
"I finally got around to replacing it with a new one and I didn't need to touch any programming whatsoever."
If you're able to swap a headlight housing without messing with any special programming tools, then what exactly is the problem???
Read the rest of the thread. Did you read about the ALU? You missed that part huh?
You obviously live in a world where nothing possibly goes wrong, you take your car to a dealership and it's all puppies, kittens and rainbows. Some of us like to have alternatives to getting raped. Some of us *gasp* buy tires/wheels on the Internet that are all ready to be installed. I know, it's amazing I can buy anything now and I don't even have to have a dealer involved. It's a gas.
I've blown out amps, speakers and head units.
How in hell did you manage to do that? What kind of crappy cars are you buying where these things fail on you? Or are you playing stuff at max volume constantly or something?
I've lost equipment over various reasons (busted CD eject), one system failure was a presumed lightening strike and speakers.. Well, let's say not all of us listen to NPR daily. Oh and I'd say that what I buy isn't exactly cheap either. No car is "cheap" anymore but if you lay out nearly six figures on any car it'll have something wrong with it over it's lifespan. I've had car on lease once that annoyed the hell out of me due to amplifier humm.. 7 repair visits before they finally replaced the AMP. I don't think Volvo knows how to deal with Led Zeppelin.
Can't you just clear the DTC with a typical OBDII scan tool? How did you modify the ECU to disregard it anyway?
You can clear a DTC however they'll usually pop back up. That's the nature of most DTCs. There's software out there you can buy and online support forums that'll teach you how to take care of these problems. A few years ago it was custom chips / EEPROM coders but now it's all software. I made the investment and never looked back.
You don't want people dealing with this. They'll abuse it and take down innocent videos of puppies and kittens.
need mod points..
To my original point... http://www.autoblog.com/2015/0...
Luddites you say? "less is more" is actually quite rational and is a sister to KISS Sure technology changes, cars get updated but nobody is advocating going back to points, manual chokes et al. If it doesn't need to be there, why put it in? Why does a car need "dozens of computers?" Maybe it's to be able to massage your ass? That's a human machine interface problem, not my field.
Oh bullshit. You can replace headlights on any car; that's completely stupid. They might not make it completely easy with HIDs, you might have to disassemble some plastic paneling or something, but it's not like you *have* to have dealer equipment to do it. HIDs all use standard D2S and D4S bulbs.
Really? Change the bulb maybe but not the housing. Not if you're a BMW owner at least.
And why the hell would you need "service" at a licensed dealer for your stereo?
In the name of anti-theft if you're keeping things OE. I've blown out amps, speakers and head units. In the case of three cars I've owned the only place I could get them fixed was at a dealer without replacing the entire system. Are there ways around it? Sure but you can't just plug in an OE radio unless it's programmed with the car. If you're going aftermarket you can chuck the OE unit in the garbage or EBay it which is precisely what the manufacturers don't want you doing. They'd rather you pay full price for a new one.
If you have regular problems with your stereo needing servicing, you're doing something wrong.
What if I want to upgrade and resell my old unit? The buyer of my OE equipment has to make provisions with a dealer or a tech who knows how to get around
the anti-theft protection.
TPMS? Why would that need service, unless you're changing a tire (and personally I've never met any backyard mechanic who changed their own tires)? All the carmakers use standard TPMS sensors anyway, and all the tire shops will sell you new ones if you need them (like for a second set of wheels, for people who switch between winter and summer wheels/tires). And that's just for cars which actually use TPMS sensors; a lot of cars just reuse the ABS wheelspeed sensors to detect differences in tire pressure. To reset the system when you inflate the tires, you just press and hold the TPMS button.
Honestly, I'm really sick of all the new-car paranoia from luddite morons who want to go back to the days of carburetors and distributor points and manual chokes.
Really? I think you're oversimplifying a bit. Maybe consumer reports is more your style?
For this model, the reprogramming process uses a handheld device that records each sensor's output and then feeds those into the car's computer. The sequence usually takes about five minutes or so. But at this dealership, the technicians fiddled around for more than two hours and finally threw in the towel. They said the problem was that the aftermarket sensors were no good. Their official programming tool didn't recognize the signals the sensors were transmitting.
What was needed, they said, was original-equipment Toyota TPM sensors. They'd be happy to remove all four "faulty" sensors, install new ones, and program them to the car. All this for a mere $640.
They obviously see a problem with TPMS sensors and compatibility. I've had personal experience with this one during a 36,000 mile service the dealer wanted to charge me $800 for new TPMS sensors. The solution for me was to tell the dealer to stick it up their ass. Why were t
Actually I do. I have done work for the automotive electronics industry. That's why I advocate "less is more" because of lock-in and it's not just about infotainment it's about all the other things that the manufacturers want to lock you out of. Headlights, Tire Pressure Monitor Sensors (TPMS), Stereo equipment and anything else that they can think of that a) forces you to buy from them for as long as you own it and b) forces you to get it serviced at their licensed dealers only. It's that way with headlights now on many top end cars. This kills the legitimate market for aftermarket parts and forces your insurance costs skyward.
Shit if they could they'd DRM the windshields to force you to replace it using their OEM windshields when you get a rock chip.
Just buy a damn smartphone and a holder for it. Give us Bluetooth connectivity for music and hands free. Oh and fuck Onstar. That's all you need. That way we can replace the phone every two years which is a hell of a lot easier than spending an extra $5K for a built-in system that is not easily up-gradable and leaves us vulnerable.
There's no reason to have critical infrastructure attached to the Internet. Also don't allow any "maintenance" via a USB thumb drive.
who see the potential of the Bradbury-inspired code to help develop comprehensive indexes of censorship on the internet
So if I want to censor you and not have it tracked I'll just give you a 403 or a 500. Which is pretty much how it works now. This won't allow anybody to truly see how much censorship there is. What a waste of intellectual bandwidth.
With data caps like Comcast's carrying a real financial cost in terms of overage fees, how can we trust providers to accurately track customers' bandwidth usage?
You can actually. There are laws that protect you from billing errors/problems but there's also lawyers. Sue the companies in court, present your evidence and sue for damages. I've had to do this with Bank Of America, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile in the past. It works because eventually you get somebody up the food chain who actually understands that they're fucking you over and try to fix it. Unfortunately in some companies there is not intelligent life to be found so I've found that judges can usually get to the bottom of things quite quickly especially when legal briefs start flying. Sure it costs money but if it's a small claims type of thing you can usually win by default because I can't see Comcast paying $500/hr for a lawyer to deal with a $300 bill.
Sorry Bennett, mobile carriers can pretty much do what they want, how they want, when they want. You could switch carriers you know, go to Sprint or Verizon or AT&T or one of their VNOs. Grow a pair and stop being such a whiny bitch.
Yes, yes they did. Windows has always had a little splash screen that included weasel language allowing them to do this. If you don't like Windows Update, you can turn it off and not get Windows 10 pushed to you. The problem is now, how do you easily get security updates? That's what tools like Autopatcher are great and providing, especially if you're supporting a lot of machines without a Volume License (Corporate) Agreement.
It's legal because of the ToS you accepted when you installed the operating system and accepted automatic updates from Microsoft. Therefore you did it to yourself.
My suggestion is to dump automatic updates and go to something like Autopatcher which avoids accepting things blindly on your behalf.
We need simple language legislation now. You shouldn't have to be a lawyer or need one to read a law and understand how you're fucked over by it.
With so many cities banning the cameras, I'm still wondering how these companies can get their costs back?
"Your password was cracked! /quote
ramifications: because terrorists now have your password, your baby is now on fire!
What a dumb summary and an even dumber premise.
humm.. it appears to be a word.
considering the cost? A lot. Construction site theft and vandalism is a big problem in the US. It's a bigger problem when the Press circumvents property rights.
how do EXIF fields protect the contents exactly? They're just tags.